Saturday 26 May 2012

The day of the Azure


Possibly the first sunny day I've had out in England since March provided a fantastic day of Odonata at Tophill Low NR, East Yorkshire, certainly the best day number wise ever with over 5,600 individual damselflies and dragonflies noted by Doug Fairweather and myself.

A new VC61 site record, and possibly a Yorkshire site record, was set for Azure Damselflies with 5,250 individuals noted. This total being more than double the previous VC61 record of 2,319 on May 21st last year. The period 20th May-31st May appears to be the time for the highest numbers, the record prior to 2011 being of 1,280 individuals logged at Tophill Low on May 23rd 2009.



Good numbers of other species on the wing included 54 Four-spotted Chaser (above), spread across the site, 8 Red-eyed Damselflies, 134 Large Red Damseflies, 135 Common Blue Damselflies and 95 Blue-tailed Damselflies (below)


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